FEAR AND LOATHING IN ISTANBUL
Matt Stone – columnist
Arizona Daily Wildcat, AZ
Aug. 22, 2006
On Sept. 21, UA Near Eastern studies professor Elif Shafak will face
trial in Turkey for "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the
Turkish penal code. Shafak, a prominent novelist and Turkish citizen,
is the victim of an increasing nationalist backlash occurring in
Turkey, a country that just recently began accession talks to join
the European Union.
In a Time Asia article written soon after she was charged, Shafak
illustrated this internal struggle: "Like a pendulum, Istanbul
swings obstinately between cosmopolitanism and nationalism, memory
and amnesia – between a weighty past we can never fully shed ? and
a hopeful future we can only run after but never quite grab hold of."
Shafak is accused of insulting Turkey in her most recent novel, "The
Bastard of Istanbul," which will be published in English in January.
In the book, an Armenian character refers to the "Turkish butchers" who
carried out the forced dislocation and related deaths of approximately
1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey from 1915 to 1923.
The Turkish government does not consider the forced migration to be
genocide, but rather, the byproduct of inter-ethnic strife during
the upheaval of World War I. Many scholars disagree.
Regardless, elements of the Turkish judiciary, led most notoriously
by ultra-nationalist prosecutor Kemal Kerincsiz, are defending the
government line by prosecuting those who disagree, like Shafak.
In all, more than 60 writers, journalists and publishers, including
Turkey’s best-known writer Orhan Pamuk, have faced trial in the past
year, many under the onerous and arbitrary fiat of Article 301.
In fact, Article 301 and its hazy application are not the product
of an anachronistic legal regime. Although Turkey’s penal code was
lifted from Mussolini’s Italy, Article 301 was written as a compromise
between internationalists and conservatives during the reforms leading
to EU accession talks. With careless haste to meet EU deadlines,
the Turkish government left openings for more nationalist elements
to sabotage Turkey’s momentum towards EU membership.
As Turkey works its way through EU accession talks, might these
trials and the reaction to them be growing pains? After all, without
Turkey’s official intent to join the EU, trials against writers and
intellectuals would certainly disappoint Western observers, but would
hardly produce the anger and admonishment heaped on editorial pages
across the West.
What is clear is that a struggle is occurring within Turkey between the
conservative old guard and more open-minded internationalists. As Sara
Whyatt, director of the Writers in Prison committee of International
PEN, a writer’s trade association, observes, "It seems to me that
these prosecutions are being driven by a rightwing element within the
Turkish judiciary, which is concerned about the Turkish application
to join the EU."
Shafak would agree. She has written that a "similar clash of opinions
between the progressive-minded and the close-minded xenophobes is under
way almost everywhere." That assessment could very well include not
only the neighborhoods of Istanbul, but also the streets of Baghdad,
the banlieues of Paris and the recent American backlash against
Mexican immigrants.
At the UA, support for Shafak has been professional. Provost George
Davis sent a letter on behalf of the UA community to the Turkish
foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, urging the Turkish government to drop
charges against Shafak. Despite a request, the contents of the letter
were not made public.
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies also sent a letter of support,
signed by colleagues and students of Shafak.
Shafak, who is currently pregnant, will stand trial with her translator
Asli Bican and her publisher Semi Sokmen of Metis Publishing House. If
convicted, they each face up to three years in prison.
Such an outcome would be a tragedy on multiple levels; for Shafak
and her colleagues, certainly, but more than that, actual convictions
would set Turkey back 40 years in terms of international respect. EU
accession talks would be dashed. The country itself might backslide
into authoritarianism, ending the Middle East’s greatest experiment
with democracy.
Despite the capriciousness of Article 301, no one has yet been
convicted under its absurd terms. Let us hope that Shafak – an asset
to the UA, Turkey and the world of literature – is not the first.
Matt Stone is a senior majoring in international studies and
economics. He can be reached at [email protected].